iPhone 3G: any good in the outdoors?

After 15 years of resistance I have finally acquired a mobile phone. Of course it could not be one of those el-cheapo throwaways sensible people own. It had to be an iPhone because, well, Steve Jobs sends secret messages to my cerebral cortex imploring me to stoke his extravagant ego by snapping up the gadgets and geegaws he hawks.

Now that I’m out 300 smackers for the ultra-deluxe model I can’t help wondering if I’d ever take such a pricey device into the woods. Well, photographers regularly haul much more extravagant gear into the wilderness, so what the heck. Next question: will it be of any use once I get there?

It does have a built-in camera, which has no features to speak of. (But you can add a cool app called AirMe, whic uploads pictures to your Flickr account). It has GPS-based location-finding tools, which are major battery hogs and probably useless in the backcountry (and might not know your real location if you’re in, say, the Southern Hemisphere).

Also, the “3G” high-speed cell network is a big-time battery drainer.

I found that the least battery-intensive activity was surfing the web on my couch. Interestingly, perhaps the coolest function is its ability to zoom in on text, documents and other stuff. Presumably you could download maps in PDFs onto it and take those hiking.

Overall it’s a way-cool toy that could save your bacon the same way any other device like a BlackBerry or plain old cell phone could: calling for help from somewhere in cell range. The location tools might be able to help rescuers find you, though I suspect they’re unproven.

One nice thing to keep in mind: lots of folks will be developing iPhone apps in the coming months, so the options will be improving markedly over time.

While I purchased my first mac over 21 years ago and I have been looking for a device like the iPhone since Metricom died and my Newton lost its wireless internet connection, I don’t think I will jump on the bandwagon just yet.

Before I dive in, I want to see more apps, a better development environment, and more choices than ATT.

Looking forward to hearing how the device works in the outdoors. I assume (but don’t know) that you can use the Google satellite view. Let us know how close the GPS-plus Google satellite view actually gets your location to the trail you’re hiking on.

Here’s something to consider: The iPhone is a digital-only phone. In populated areas, or relatively flat land, it’s not hard to build digital cell sites that cover the maximum 3–mile radius. In mountainous terrain those distances are much shorter, and the coverage pattern is unpredictable.

But compare that to the original analog cell system has more like a 15 mile radius, and the phones still work far beyond that with a poor, noisy signal reminiscent of almost out of range walkie-talkie.

That’s why it’s going to be quite a few years before I give up my plain old phone that still supports analog signals. While some carriers are starting to dismantle the analog cell sites in populated areas, they’re going to leave them up in the more remote areas for quite a few years.

I’ve succeeded in sending photos to Flickr and a tweet to Twitter using my iPhone (now considered the older version) while standing atop a peak or two. But like most cell phones, it doesn’t get service on the trails.

I’ve found that coverage around most of Tahoe is spotty outside of the main Casino/Ski areas and population centers.

I had no reception at the Meeks Bay trailhead 2 weeks ago when I was trying to call a cab. (I did have spotty reception about a mile up the ridge, but not enough to hold a call for more than a few seconds)